Showing posts with label Mitchell Library SLNSW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mitchell Library SLNSW. Show all posts

Captain Goldsmith, the Parrock Hall and playwright David Burn, Sydney 1844

CAPTAIN EDWARD GOLDSMITH merchant mariner
PARROCK HALL barque
DAVID BURN playwright



State library NSW
La Hogue, sailing ship, outside Sydney Heads ca.1860s
Watercolour by Frederick Garling 1806-1873 Call Number SV / 77


On Tuesday, November 5th, 1844, Captain Edward Goldsmith (1804-1869) sailed into Sydney Harbour in command of the merchant barque the Parrock Hall, 425 tons, departing Portsmouth on July 22, 1844, bringing mail, cargo and passengers via the Cape of Good Hope. The voyage was exceptionally fast (105 days). According to The Shipping Gazette and Sydney General Trade List of Nov. 9th, "she had a fine passage" and on the way, "she did not speak any thing." The ship may have acquired its name from the old manor of Robert de Parrock, where Parrock Avenue and Parrock Road are now located in Gravesend, Kent, UK. Parrock Hall was built by Peter Moulson, Lord of the Manor of Milton, in 1761, and by 1821 it was owned by Colonel Dalton. In 1991, Parrock Hall, a Grade II listed building, was said to be in a dilapidated state with calls for its preservation.

"A very fine day" was how journalist and playwright David Burn described Tuesday, November 5th 1844, in his diary (SLNSW Call No. B 190 / 2). He was watching the signals on Flagstaff Hill, Millers Point, for news of Captain Goldsmith's arrival in Sydney Harbour. The Marryat flag for the Parrock Hall, No. 9376, signalled the barque as it sailed on towards Fotheringham's Wharf "in the Cove" where it would remain until being cleared out for London on January 15th, 1845.



Code of Signals for the Colony of NSW
Marryat Signals, Colonial Signals
Sydney, Port Jackson, January 1st, 1834
State Library of NSW Ref:a7225190h

While loading and repairs to sails on the Parrock Hall continued at Sydney, Captain Goldsmith boarded the brig Louisa, Captain Tucker master, for Hobart, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) as a passenger on December 6th, 1844. As neither his wife, Elizabeth Goldsmith nee Day nor their two sons Richard (b.1830) and Edward (b. 1837) were listed as passengers on the Parrock Hall, they may have stayed home at Gad's Hill House, their new residence completed in 1842 on six acres in the village of Higham, Kent, and Captain Goldsmith would have stayed at his house in Hobart at 19 Davey Street. The Gad's Hill property was situated at the top of Telegraph Hill: its beacon was the last in line before Chatham, signalling ships coming up the Thames.

Captain Goldsmith had two purposes in mind on his visit to Hobart while the Parrock Hall was delayed in Sydney. His primary task was to attend to his business dealings with the colonial administration and seek to secure future export charters with pastoralists and nurserymen. However, most important for David Burn, Captain Goldsmith would deliver news of the progress of Burn's literary success and endeavours to Catherine Burn nee Fenton, his second wife. He would also deliver vital legal documents to solicitor Mr. Harrisson on Burn's behalf to be presented at a CAVEAT hearing (Hobart, reported 21st February 1845. Launceston Examiner) concerning several serious matters: the insolvency of David Burn and his mother Jacobina Burn in 1844; the validity of his divorce in England from his marriage in Scotland to his first wife Frances Maria Eldred, and whether he had committed bigamy if Scottish law did not recognize his English divorce (1829); his mother's large property (more than 4000 acres) at Ellangowan Tasmania which would only pass to his second wife Catherine Fenton if his second marriage was legitimate, and from which he wished to provide for his mother's welfare until her death and for his child by his first marriage, Jemima Frances Irvine nee Burn who arrived with him in Tasmania in 1826. Jemima Irvine nee Burn achieved a reputation as an accomplished artist and conchologist. She found the Cypraea irvineanae which was named after her (Cox, 1889).

Business concluded, and letters safely placed in Catherine Burn's hands, Captain Goldsmith returned to Sydney on the brig Louisa as a passenger three weeks later, arriving December 26th, 1844, and loading continued on the Parrock Hall.



State Library of NSW
From Blackwood's panorama of Sydney & Harbour from Government House, [1858]
Call Number PXA 426

The Parrock Hall with Captain Edward Goldsmith in command had departed London on July 15, 1844 and arrived at Sydney Cove via the Cape of Good Hope on November 5, 1844 bringing mail, cargo and passengers. The ship stayed "in the Cove" for weeks before reloading cargo and passengers for London at Fotheringham's Wharf. In total, the barque was docked at Sydney for two months, the delay during the height of a Sydney summer no doubt most enjoyable to captain and crew alike. The Parrock Hall finally cleared out for London on January 15th, 1845.







State Library of NSW
Blackwood's panorama of Sydney & Harbour from Government House, [1858]
Title Blackwood's panorama of Sydney & Harbour from Government House, [1858]
Creator Blackwood, W. (William), 1824-1897
Collection Date of Work[1858]
Call Number PXA 426
Link: https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/n88Eg0Ln/xJMRlrKEa0l56

Notices: Parrock Hall 1844-45
Sources: Shipping Gazette and Sydney General Trade List,
https://www.nla.gov.au/ferg/issn/14403897.html
Sydney Morning Herald
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/12876674#

November 5, 1844:



TRANSCRIPT
November 5. Parrock Hall, barque, 425 tons, Captain Goldsmith, from London, the 15th, and Portsmouth the 22nd July, with a general cargo. Passengers - Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. R. Campbell, and four sons, Mrs. Fotheringham, Miss Jepherson, Miss How, Miss M. How, Miss Wright, Mr. W. L. Hay, Mr. T. L. Hay, Mr. Nowland, Dr. Morse, Mr. W.H. Morse, Mr. W. H. Hunt, Mr. T. Jones, Mr. T. W. Turner, Mrs. Sarah Trump, Mis E. Gray, Mr. H. Lynch, Mrs. E. Jusseauma, Mr. amd Mrs. Bartlett, son, and two daughters, and Mr. J. Anderson.

November 6, 1844: Imports per Parrock Hall



TRANSCRIPT
IMPORTS.
November 5.-Parrock Hall, barque, 424 tons, Captain Goldsmith, from London : 1 box apparel, A. Gravely; 6 tierces tobacco, Thomas Smith and Co. ; 3 casks lead, Watkin ; 28 kegs 12 tierces tobacco, Smith and Campbell; 30 hogsheads and 50 barrels beer, and 100 casks bottled beer, Lyall, Scott, and Co.; 12 cases, 1 cask, 5 bales, 60 coils line, and 6 coils rope, 20 firkins, 4 casks oil, and 1 box, F. Whit-worth; 1 case, F. Mitchell; 4 cases, J. and S. Willis; 4 bales slops, 33 tierces tobacco, 4 bales slops, 20 trunks shoes, and 8 bales shirts, Lamb and Parbury; 1 case apparel, and 1 box candles, Bishop of Australia ; 2 boxes black lead, Ray and Glaister; 43 hogsheads rum, R. Towns ; 1 case silver plate, Miss Howe ; 1 case silver plate, R. Campbell, junior; 100 hogs-heads beer, 100 casks bottled beer, 1 case, and 4 bales, Flower, Salting, and Co. ; 1 case ap-parel, J. Purser; 2 cases apparel, and 3 bales, Rev. Dr. Ross ; 1 case, W. Walker and Co. ; 1 parcel books, Colonel Shadforth ; 8 trusses and 1 trunk, J. J. Giblett ; 7 packages plate glass, Solomon ; 5 boxes soap, Miss Wright; 3 bales and 8 cases, M. Joseph; 1 case, Quaife ; 1 case books, W. A. Colman; 1 case and 1 trunk, J. G. Raphael, 1 case, Fullerton; 1 case, Mr. Hamilton ; 8 bales, 19 cases, H. G. Smith ; 33 cases and 39 bales, 29 1/2 tierces, and 5 tierces tobacco, Griffiths, Gore, and Co. , 1 case, D. Davis ; 1 case, J. F. Milne , 2 cases, 2 trunks, 1 bale, Swain, Webb, and Co ; 1 case, G Mason ; 45 coils rope, A. Fothering-ham ; 1 case, 10 bales, 5 trunks, T. Smith and Co ; 30 hogsheads beer, 3 cases whips, E. Goldsworth ; 3 bales and 3 cases, R. Ramsay, sen., and Co. ; 1 case preserves, J. Parnell; 8 cases cottons, Dreutler and Wagner ; 38 cases Portugal wine, E. C. Weekes ; 1 box boots, Judge Stephen ; 36 bales linens, 8 cases sta-tionery, 28 casks shoes, I bundle measures, 4 bundles tarpaulins, 9 bundles, 38 table boards, 79 kettles, 52 pots, 50 shovels, 27 pieces iron, 400 ash felloes, 12 spades, 3 coils rope, 1 hand-cart, 100 fathoms cable, 4 gun-carriages, 4 handspikes, 16 bundles iron, 5 baskets oil, 10 cases iron work, Government stores ; 1 case (a carriage), 1 case hardware, 34 casks bottled, and 1 hogshead beer, order. R. Towns, agent.

Source: IMPORTS. (1844, November 6). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW), p. 2.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12427310

November 9, 1844:



TRANSCRIPT
The Parrock Hall has had a fine passage from Portsmouth of 105 days; her mail is not a very large one, and she did not speak any thing during the voyage. Immediately that her cargo is landed, she will be laid on the berth for London.



TRANSCRIPT
Parrock Hall, barque, 425 tons, Goldsmith, at Fotheringham's Wharf. R. Towns, agent. Discharging, and advertised for London.



Captain Goldsmith's agent Robert Towns
State Library NSW
Robert Towns, merchant and entrepreneur, 1873 / photographer Freeman, late Oswald Allen
Call Number P1 / 1797, Digital Order No. a4364097
Link: https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/nZNv4lmn/WbDWdREBZOqVO#viewer

November 16, 1844:



TRANSCRIPT
Parrock Hall, barque, 425 tons, Goldsmith; 12 casks tallow, on board.

November 27th, 1844:
Memorandum of Agreement between Captain Edward Goldsmith of the Parrock Hall and agents J. Woodall, and W. Samson to supply labour to load wool at Sydney dated 27th November 1844:



Held at the Mitchell Library, SLNSW
Robert Towns & Co - Records, 1828-1896 Call Number MLMSS 307
Photos copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2016

TRANSCRIPT
Memorandum of Agreement between Captain Edward Goldsmith of the Barque Parrock Hall on the one part, and J. Woodall and W. Samson, Stevadores, of Sydney, on the other part, that is to say the said J. Woodall, and W. Samson do hereby agree to stow the said Vessell with Wool, [inserted - and other Merchandise], and to find Press, Screws, Planks, Samson Posts, Toms, Hand-hooks, Lashings and a foreman and find all Labour at 4s per Bale the whole of the Cargo to be taken from the Shore and hoisted on board by the Stevendores with the useof the Ship's boats
No allowance for Broken Stowage of any Kind - Bones - Hoofs and Horns being of that description
The terms of this agreement is to this effect - the whole of the Labour to be performed by the seven Stevadores without any extra change beyond the sum above stated and to the entire satisfaction of the said Captain Goldsmith
We also agree to stow the Dead Weight on board the above Vessel, at Nine Pence per Ton. Ship finding labour ....
Witness our hands this Twenty seven day of November One thousand eight hundred and forty-four
We also agree to Employ what men you have to spare at the rate of 2/5 pr day and to ? at the rate of 2/6 etc etc [ page torn ]
For Woodall and Samson
signed R Towns
Jno Wood etc
On December 6th, 1844, Captain Goldsmith departed Sydney for Hobart as a passenger on board the brig Louisa, and returned three weeks later, on Boxing Day, 26th December 1844.



Above: The brig Louisa: Captain Goldsmith's departure from Sydney to Hobart on 6th December. Meanwhile, loading on the Parrock Hall in Sydney continued while repairs were made to the sails.

December 20th, 1844:



TRANSCRIPT
Parrock Hall, barque, 425 tons, Goldsmith; 401 casks tallow, 801 bales wool, 2 tons dyewood, 7 tons copper ore, 4 tons manganese, 10 tons horns and bones, 2 casks neats'-foot oil, and 200 salted hides on board.

January 4th, 1845



TRANSCRIPT
The Parrock Hall has bent sails, and will get away in the course of the ensuing fortnight.



Campbell's Wharf and Sydney Cove from Dawes Point / possibly by Freeman Brothers or Prout
https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/YezEOJW9/Azl8vJrM6gwA4
Sydney Cove 1850s
SLNSW Ref: a128716h

January 15th, 1845:



TRANSCRIPT
January 15. Parrock, Hall, barque, Captain Goldsmith for London. Passengers - Mr. and Miss Mead, Mr. Wade, Dr. Johnson, Mr. and Mrs Gard, Misses Agnes, Elizabeth, and Emma Gard, Master William Gard, Mr. Ashford, Mr. Atkins, Mr. R. Bailey, Master Conolly, Mr. John Whaling, Mr. and Mrs. Donovan and son, Mr. and Mrs. Curtis and five children, Mr. John Hazard, Mr. Henry Granhow, Mrs Luke, Mrs. Chapman, Mr. George West. Mr. Joseph Hoyle, Mr. Charles Swindels, Mr. W. Copeland, Mrs. Copeland, and Mr. W. Taylor.

EXPORTS January 11th, 1845



TRANSCRIPT
EXPORTS
January 11.— Parrock Hall, barque, Captain Goldsmith, for London : 222 bales wool, 19 casks tallow, R. Ramsay and Co. ; 238 bales wool, 19 casks tallow, Gilchrist and Alexander ; 21 bales wool, Brown and Co. ; 155 bales wool, 63 casks tallow, 3 casks hog's lard, 1 case ap-parel, 1 case of specimens of natural history, Thacker, Mason, and Co.; 218 bales wool, Donaldson, Dawes, and Co. ; 186 bales wool, W. Walker and Co. ; 13 casks tallow, C. Ap-pleton and Co. ; 137 casks tallow, 2 casks neats-foot oil, 240 hides, Robert Towns ; 20 casks tallow, Thomas Smith and Co. ; 9 tons copper ore, 3 tons manganese, 10 cwt. dyewood, Beattie and Taylor ; 3 casks ironmongery, B. Boyd and Co. ; 1 case jewellery, 4 casks and 8 cases ironmongery, R. Lamb; 10 tons dyewood, C. Abercrombie ; 12 tons bones, R. Hill.
Exports: January 11th, 1845, the Parrock Hall and January 13th, the Louisa.
Source: EXPORTS. (1845, January 13). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW), p. 2. Retrieved March 12, 2023
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12876674

Captain Goldsmith and David Burn
Tasmanian photographer Thomas J. Nevin's future uncle-in-law, Captain Edward Goldsmith, was a mariner of exceptional skill. Commander of great merchant ships trading between Europe, the Americas, South Africa and Australia from the 1830s to the 1850s, his services to the colonists and officials of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) in the 1840s and 1850s, and especially to governor Sir John Franklin and his wife Jane, Lady Franklin, brought many rewards and enduring friendships, not least among them the affection of David Burn, journalist and playwright who had accompanied Sir John and Lady Franklin on their visit to the west coast of Tasmania in 1842. Burn described the visit in his Narrative of the Overland Journey … From Hobart Town to Macquarie Harbour, 1842 (Sydney 1955, G. Mackaness): read the full transcript here. David Burn also wrote about his trip to Port Arthur in the 1840s, which was republished by Beattie in 1898.

Although not a mariner himself, David Burn was conversant enough with the code of signals to determine shipping movements. He was on the lookout for Captain Goldsmith's return into Sydney Harbour from London on the barque the Parrock Hall on November 5th, 1844 when he wrote in his diary:

Tuesday: 5: [November 1844] A very fine day the most of which I spent in writing up my book on the promising land of Australia - regaled the while by the delightful band of the 99th - exercising in the Barrack Square. The Barrack Hall [sic - Parrock Hall], Goldsmith, late of the Janet Izak [sic - the brig Janet Izatt], arrived from London, bringing news to the 22nd July. Goldsmith has only been 8 months and seven days since he sailed homewards from Hobart.

A few weeks later, when Captain Goldsmith and the Parrock Hall were "still in the Cove" at Sydney, David Burn visited Captain Goldsmith with an important request - to deliver letters and gifts to Catherine Burn. David Burn wrote in his diary:

Saturday: 16 [November 1844] Occupied throughout the morning inditing a voluminous epistle to my darling wife. A smoking morning. Bought a p. of scissors. Called upon Mr. Murphy. Came on a wet evening. Melville left us. Saw Captain Goldsmith. No one at home. Killed the weary hours at the play.

With the delay to the Parrock Hall's departure at Sydney, Captain Goldsmith left for Hobart on 6th December as a passenger on board the Louisa. and returned to Sydney within the fortnight with news, and letters. On 19th December 1844, David Burn left for Norfolk Island on the 'Agincourt' under Captain Neatby, returning to Sydney on 29th December 1844.

A fortnight later. David Burn noted in his diary that the weather in Sydney was "blistering and lowering" when he watched the signals for the departure of Captain Goldsmith on the Parrock Hall for London, and for the Louisa to Hobart which was carrying more letters to his wife:
Wednesday: 15: [January 1845] Another blistering and lowering morning. Duval honourably acquitted of all participation in Warne’s murder. Writing my Norfolk Island notes for transmission to Frasers Mag. Called at the Australian Office.Parrock Hall, Goldsmith, sailed - Louisa not gone. John Inches and Mr. Pringle dined with us, and Inches and I eased them of 2/6 at whist.
Source:
State Library of NSW
David Burn - journal of a voyage from London to Hobart in the barque Calcutta, 31 July-22 Nov. 1841, and journal, 1 Aug. 1844-19 Feb. 1845
Creator Burn, David, 1798-1875
Collection Date of Work 1841-1845
Type of Material Textual Records
Call Number B 190 / 2 Issue Copy Microfilm - CY 846, frames 1-144 (B 190/2)

THE JOURNAL
Source: images and transcript
State Library of NSW
https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/1l4dBwK1

David Burn mentions Captain Goldsmith on three occasions in this journal:

1.



1.TRANSCRIPT OF A1502180
176 [1844]

[November] Monday: 4: A foggy morning which a horrid Brickfielder blew away. Called upon Mr. McIntosh and heard of Sir E. Forbes’ estate. Waiting all day.

[November] Tuesday: 5: A very fine day the most of which I spent in writing up my book on the promising land of Australia - regaled the while by the delightful band of the 99th - exercising in the Barrack Square. The Barrack Hall [sic - should be the barque Parrock Hall], Goldsmith, late of the Janet Izak [sic - should be the brig Janet Izatt], arrived from London, bringing news to the 22nd July. Goldsmith has only been 8 months and seven days since he sailed homewards from Hobart.

[November] Wednesday: 6: This day twelve years I was made blest with the coveted possession of my Catharine’s hand. Many are the vicissitudes we have, both, since encountered - many the lands wherein we have sojourned, and sore and sad the trials and tribulations we have experienced. But when each gave the other their hand, the altar witnessed an equal exchange of hearts. Time and trial have but proved each other’s truth - and, unworthy as I may be of the inestimable treasure of her love, she could have conferred it on none more sensible of its value or more devoted to its regard. Oh that on this day we should be so widely sundered. God grant us a speedy reunion no more to dream life away in divided misery.
The day passed heavily and gloomily by, the 19th part of Tom Burke sufficing to kill a portion and a perusal of the progress of the French aggression upon Morrocco getting over another. Three years and a half since I returned to pronounced war with France a mere question of time which, when she dreamt herself prepared, she would provoke - “Coming events cast their shadows before”. The shadow is darkening. The note of preparation sounds louder and, ere long, De Ivinville, in the plenitude of his presumption will, in all human probability, prove the worthless instrument of a bloody, but not doubtful contest. If they do force us again, I trust the pen may never more relinquish the solid triumphs that the sword may acquire. H.M.S. Nestal, 26, arrived from Hobart also the Waterlily, so I shall have a dear letter in the morning I hope. Mr. Watson kindly called, and we had a long chat about farms and else.

2.



2. TRANSCRIPT OF A1502183
179 [1844]

[November] Friday: 15: Went to the Theatre to arrange the cast, and day of performance of “Our First Lieutenant”. From thence to the ibrary to read the British and Foreign (as I already had the Foreign) Review on the Ivinville pamphlet which I rejoice to observe has aroused Englishmen “to do their duty”. From the Reading Room to the Circular Wharf where with Inches and Mrs. Atkinson I crossed to Watsons. The day proved a smoking one. We had a nice lunch, finding Mr. Blankenberg there. For the first time I eat the passion fruit which is not unlike to the Pomegranate. There was a good deal of thunder overhead, and Melville and I were caught in the rain in the domain. Dropped a card at Govt. House. Had a note of acknowledgment from Mr. Barker thanking me for my book, and giving me a general invite. A rainy evening, a portion of which I beguiled to the Theatre.

[November]Saturday: 16: Occupied throughout the morning inditing a voluminous epistle to my darling wife. A smoking morning. Bought a p. of scissors. Called upon Mr. Murphy. Came on a wet evening. Melville left us. Saw Captain Goldsmith. No one at home. Killed the weary hours at the play.

[November] Sunday: 17: It rained hard during the night and morning dawned upon a day of damp and gloom. there were no church goers among us. I passed the day in a review of the Ivinville pamphlet, except a brief space occupied in a stroll with Inches in the domain where we were caught in a heavy thunder shower.

[November] Monday: 18: Went to the Theatre to arrange about my farce & found the engagt. of Mr. & Mrs. Coppin [see note and photos below] likely to interfere with its production. Mrs. C. is, I find, the runaway wife of Watkins Burroughs of Surrey celebrity. Thence to the Australian Office with my review of De Ivinville. Accompanied Dr. Gannon in a stroll through the domain and on board the Dublin. Met my old shipmate Barry Cotter. Went to the Theatre in the evening with Mr. Semple, a very full house to see the Lady of Lyons and Turnpike Gate. Mrs. Coppin evidently a scientific actress. Mr. Griffiths, a man who might “go ahead” in a better school.

3.



3.TRANSCRIPT OF A1502238
234 [1845]

[January] Monday: 13: From 9 a.m. until 5.30 p.m. I was in Court listening to the trial of Lucius O’Brien for the sanguinary assassination of Dr. Joseph Meyrick. The murder was clearly established, and the plea of insanity gone into proof when I left. The aspect of the prisoner betrayed no indications of insanity and all the evidence I heard went the other way, but there were 28 witnesses to the then ex. It is a shocking case, whatever the verdict may be. Met O’Reilly and Mends on my way back. Found they had dined at 5 and the house tossed up for a fete given by Gannon. A signal for a ship flying - a Nova Scotia whaler - Mathew McAlister in town. Called at the Australian Office. Gannons party kept it up in great style, until the long hours grew short, Dr. Munro, R.N. acting fiddler with great good will.

[January] Tuesday: 14: At 2 this morning O’Brien declared to be insane - Fudge! Who is safe now against the assassins’ aim. Wrote a few lines to Kate, my beloved, per Louisa. Wrote a Catch Notice for the Burlesque - a scorching day. In the afternoon we had heavy thunder and lightning with every appearance of a torrent of rain which wore away after the discharge of a few hot drops. Capt. Turner, Mr. Downes and [indecipherable] talking of their own parts of Auld Ireland. Went to the Theatre where I met Walsh, O’Reilly and Mends - Walsh does not go per Agincourt - Louisa not yet sailed.

[January] Wednesday: 15: Another blistering and lowering morning. Duval honourably acquitted of all participation in Warne’s murder. Writing my Norfolk Island notes for transmission to Frasers Mag. Called at the Australian Office. Parrock Hall, Goldsmith, sailed - Louisa not gone. John Inches and Mr. Pringle dined with us, and Inches and I eased them of 2/6 at whist.

etc etc ...

NOTE on GEORGE COPPIN and "Mrs C"
In his journal entry for November 18th, 1844, David Burn not only expressed a fear that the engagement of George Seith Coppin's theatre company and the actor's tendency toward vulgarity would interfere with the production of his play, his reservation was compounded by Coppin's adulterous status with the American "runaway" wife of a theatrical agent and actor, Maria Watkins Burroughs, whom George Coppin met in Dublin at the Abbey Theatre while he was still in his teens. She was nine years his senior. They eloped to Sydney in 1843, and lived together until Maria Watkins Burroughs' sudden death from illness in 1848. Burn also seemed unconvinced by her methods of role interpretation: - "evidently a scientific actress" was his conclusion on watching her perform in the Lady of Lyons, a five act romantic melodrama written in 1838 by Edward Bulwer-Lytton.



George Coppin in costume as Jem Bags the Wandering Minstrel.
Edmund Cosworth Waddington & Co, photographer. 1888
In collection: George Selth Coppin, Papers, MS 8827
State Library of Victoria



E.C. Waddington & Co. (Melbourne, Vic.).
[Portrait of George Selth Coppin in Milky White], [between 1885 and 1900]
National Library of Australia
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-142849290



NSW Public Record Office
Ref: 45/35940 Photographs of Sydney taken between 1860 and 1880


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Prisoner William RYAN wholesale forger at the TMAG

The Press described William Ryan as "respectably attired" in September 1870 at his appearance in court on charges of forgery. They also reported that he was someone who showed deep emotions when given sentence, and someone even prone to dissembling, fakery and over-acting. Care for his personal appearance was not attentuated by a prison sentence, it seems. When Thomas J. Nevin photographed Ryan for police and prison records at the Hobart Gaol during Ryan's six years of incarceration, the resulting photograph showed a clean shaven, nicely groomed and neatly dressed man in a prisoner's uniform, someone with a quiet and self-contained demeanour all round.



Prisoner William Ryan
Photographed by T. J. Nevin 1874
TMAG Collection Ref: Q15576



Verso inscriptions: NEVIN, T. J. 1874 "60"
"248" William Ryan per City of Hobart
Torn paper shows removal from the prisoner's criminal record sheet ca. 1916
Photographed by T. J. Nevin 1874
TMAG Collection Ref: Q15576

William Ryan had not long arrived in Tasmania when he was tried for uttering a forged cheque at Launceston on 29th December 1868 and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. Within months of discharge, he was arrested and sentenced at the Hobart Supreme Court to ten years' imprisonment for uttering forged cheques. The newspapers of the day took pleasure in reporting the ingenuity of the police in catching him, and the antics of the prisoner in the dock at the Police Court before His Worship the Mayor.

The Newspaper Reports: William Ryan "wholesale forger"

Mercury, Tuesday 27th September 1870
POLICE COURT
Monday, September 20th 1870
Before His Worship the Mayor.
Forgery:- William Ryan was placed in the dock on three charges of forgery, viz. - First, for having on the 5th of September forged a cheque for  £5.12s. bearing the name of John McDermott, and passed it on Mr. W. F. Brownell, draper, of Liverpool-street; secondly , with having on the 17th of September forged and uttered a cheque bearing the name of John Swain for £3.10s. on Mr Winch, grocer, of Davey-street; and thirdly, with forging and uttering a cheque on Mr. Thomas Downey for £4.10s.
The police asked for the accused to be remanded till the 28th of September. Remanded accordingly.
Mercury, Tuesday 27th September 1870
Forgery Case:- A man named William Ryan, recently released from a two years' incarceration, was placed in the dock at the Police Court yesterday, charged with forging three cheques for £5.12s., £3.10s., and   £4.10s respectively, all of which he had succeeded in getting cashed at various business places in Hobart Town. The first cheque was cashed by an assistant of Mr. Brownell, draper, of Liverpool-street, on the 5th of September, since which time, up to Saturday last, the police have been vainly endeavouring to unearth the forger. On Saturday last, however, between the hours of five and six o'clock in the evening, these efforts were rewarded with success. Detective Vickers, accompanied by Sergeant Waller, at the time mentioned happening to be standing near the corner of Harrington and Liverpool-street, observed a man come out of Mr. McCormack's drapery shop, carrying some carpenter's tools. Directly the man caught sight of the constables he began to make off very rapidly, and in his haste dropped one of the tools he had been carrying. Detective Vickers sang out to him that he had dropped something, which only had the effect of quickening the man's pace. This aroused the detective's suspicions, and he ran into Mr. McCormack's shop, and ascertained from him that the man had endevoured to pass a cheque, which he (Mr. McCormack) had refused to accept. Preparations were then made for a capture, Detective Vickers going one way and Sergeant Waller another, so as to hedge the suspicious individual in, and to prevent his escape. This proved successful, for after a run of about a mile and a half, he was brought to bay, and conveyed to the watchhouse. On searching him, several £1 notes and a cheque for £3.10s., which he had been unable to get cashed, were found on him. The charge was not proceeded with yesterday, as the police, for certain reasons, asked for a remand till Wednesday, the 28th inst, which request was granted.
Mercury, Thursday 29th September 1870:
A Wholesale Forger:- William Ryan, a middle-aged, respectably attired man, was placed in the prisoners dock at the Police Court yesterday, on three distinct charges of forgery. The evidence in each case was of the most conclusive character, and left not the shadow of a doubt as to the guilt of the accused, who was accordingly committed to take his trial at the next Criminal Sessions, which commence in Hobart Town on the 22nd November next. Though the prisoner had only recently been liberated from Port Arthur from serving a sentence for a similar offence, he affected to be very much hurt as the position in which he found himself, turning his back on the people in court, and hiding his face in his hands, and when asked to sign his name in the usual way to the committment paper, he professed his inability to sign his name. The extraordinary spectacle of a forger unable to write caused a smile. The acting was overdone.



Source: THE MERCURY. (1870, September 29). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 2. Retrieved July 12, 2015, from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8863771

An extended account was also published in the Mercury on 29th September 1870, page 3, with detailed depositions from witnesses, and Superintendent Propsting conducting the case.
https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page785165

Mercury, Saturday 19th November 1870.
SUPREME COURT CRIMINAL SITTINGS.
The session of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol Delivery will commence on Tuesday next at 11. a.m., at the Court House, Campbell-Street, before Mr. Justice Dobson. A second Court will be presided over by the Chief Justice. The following is the calendar.
Eliza Osborne, wounding
William Ryan, uttering
Joseph Winters, unlawfully wounding
Francis Thomas Allison, wounding
William Triffett, forgery and uttering [etc]

Mercury, Thursday 24th November 1870
SENTENCE
William Ryan was placed in the dock to receive sentence for committing forgery. When asked if he had anything to say why sentence should not be passed on him, he said he hoped His Honor would temper mercy with justice as before committing the forgeries he had endeavoured to get assistance from Government to enable him to go to Launceston, where he had a wife and two children, and where he had left his tools. He had been unsuccessful in that endeavour, and he tried to get money by forgery.
His Honor, addressing the prisoner, said on examination he found that he (the prisoner) had been in the colony about two years. Shortly after his arrival he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for forgery; and before he had been out of custody many weeks he again committed forgery. He (the judge) could not accept the prisoner's statement as to his endeavouring to obtain relief from Government before he committed the forgery as extenuating the crime in the slightest degree. The maximum punishment for forgery allowed by the law was imprisonment for life, but he (the judge) would not sentence him to the full extent allowed by law, but would order him to be imprisoned for a term that would give him time for reflection.
The sentence, which he considered it his duty to inflict, was that he (the prisoner) be imprisoned for a period of ten years.
The prisoner, who seemed deeply affected, was then removed. The court then rose.
Source: LAW INTELLIGENCE. (1870, November 24). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 2. Retrieved July 12, 2015, from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8872576

In denial: the TMAG database notes
Does the public need the opinions of museum and library cataloguists which go well beyond basic documented fact? Their so-called "research" which often appears accompanying old photographs may mislead, and in some cases, deliberately so, as this TMAG catalogue reference for Nevin's photograph of William Ryan demonstrates.



Verso inscriptions: NEVIN, T. J. 1874 "60"
"248" William Ryan per City of Hobart

Removed from the prisoner's criminal record sheet ca. 1916
Photographed by T. J. Nevin 1874
TMAG Collection Ref: Q15576



CALLOUTS: This is the database information for Nevin's photograph of William Ryan at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (received here in 2015). Even though Nevin's name and date of photographic capture was clearly written on the verso decades or even a century earlier, the cataloguist not only chose to ignore it, she wrongly transcribed Nevin's second initial "J" as "S", despite all prior research, publications and exhibitions of these Tasmanian mugshots in Nevin's name right throughout the 20th century.

No reference is given for the source of misinformation concerning A. H. Boyd. Note the use of existential sentence structure: "It is thought ...is known to have ..." which suggests objectivity, even common knowledge, when in fact the only source is the TMAG's own publication of an A-Z directory called Tasmanian photographers 1840-1940 (Long, C.; Winter, G. 1995), where the furphy about A. H. Boyd was included as a "belief" purely in the interests of promoting tourism to Port Arthur. In preparing the database notes, the TMAG cataloguist added a few more imaginative flourishes, viz:

1,  "keen amateur" ... A.H. Boyd was not a photographer, keen, amateur or otherwise. No photographic works exist by A. H. Boyd in public collections, nor have his descendants proffered or published a single photograph they can claim to be taken by Boyd from private collections.

2. "room .. studio ... darkroom" ... The so-called "room" at Port Arthur was the Officer's library established in 1866 by the previous commandant James Boyd and used as a studio by visiting photographers Alfred Bock (1866), Samuel Clifford (1873) and Thomas Nevin (1872-1874).

3. "instructions given to Boyd to photograph the convicts" ...The claim that a document held at the State Library of NSW refers to instructions given to Commandant James Boyd's successor at Port Arthur , A. H. Boyd (1871-1873) to photograph prisoners is incorrect. No such document exists. The so-called "document" in question is nothing more than cargo lists of photographic materials sent to Port Arthur for use by Samuel Clifford and Thomas J. Nevin in 1873. A. H. Boyd was not a photographer. He was not the photographer of police mugshots dating from the 1870s which found their way into public collections. Speculation to the contrary is a waste of time and effort, and potentially fraudulent. Instead of  wasting time doing so-called "research", cataloguists in museums and libraries would better serve the public by digitising and placing online the recto AND THE VERSO of photographs, and nothing more. The public will do the rest.

Police and Court Records for William RYAN



Name:Ryan, William
Record Type:Convicts
Arrival date:1 Jan 1868
Remarks:Free. Tried Launceston Dec 1868
Index number:61849
Document ID:NAME_INDEXES:1431630 (TAHO)
Conduct Record CON37/1/10 Page 5773

William Ryan was served a two-year sentence handed down on 29th December 1868 at Launceston. He was sent to Port Arthur from where he was "liberated" in 1870. For his second sentence of ten years, he was listed in the Hobart Supreme Court calendar for trial on Tuesday, 22nd November 1870. Whether he was sent back to Port Arthur  or remained at the Hobart Gaol is not clear. There is no mention of Port Arthur on the verso of his photograph, and his name does not appear on the Port Arthur conduct registers for 1868 to 1876. His name is also missing from the list tabled in Parliament in July 1873 of prisoners sent to Port Arthur and subsequently relocated to the Hobart Gaol by 1874. William Ryan was already at the Hobart Gaol in 1874 when Thomas Nevin took his photograph for the police registers and prison records.



Rough Calendar Hobart Supreme Court, 29th November 1870.
Supreme Court Records, TAHO Ref: GD70-1-1

Mercury, Saturday 19th November 1870.
SUPREME COURT CRIMINAL SITTINGS. The session of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol Delivery will commence on Tuesday next at 11. a.m., at the Court House, Campbell-Street, before Mr. Justice Dobson. A second Court will be presided over by the Chief Justice. The following is the calendar.Eliza Osborne, woundingWilliam Ryan, utteringJoseph Winters, unlawfully woundingFrancis Thomas Allison, woundingWilliam Triffett, forgery and uttering



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime Information for Police. J. Barnard, Gov't printer.

William Ryan was discharged from the Hobart Gaol in the week ending 3rd May 1876, residue of sentence remitted. He was described as 49 yrs old, dark brown hair, 5'5" tall.

The original Hobart Gaol book print
This print from Nevin's original negative was produced at a date later than the same image held at the TMAG. It shows evidence around the top right side of the oval mount of having been pasted over an earlier version, and it was not printed at that time for that purpose as a full carte-de-visite. It was probably one of the originals pasted to Ryan's criminal record sheet on his discharge which was then bound as the Hobart Gaol record book for 1874-1876, mysteriously missing now its original photographs (TAHO holdings). The TMAG item (at top) which is a full-carte-de-visite, probably one of Nevin's stand-alone duplicates, is in fair condition, and not greatly reproduced through scanning (2015), while this version (below) which is held at the State Library of Tasmania is in overall better condition, and has been digitized through photographic reproduction. Note too that this print does not bear the number "60" on the mount, which further suggests it was removed more recently from the Hobart Gaol book, while the TMAG item, which was originally held at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery as part of convictaria collector John Watt Beattie's estate, was removed in 1983 for an exhibition at Port Arthur, where it was exposed to air, and deposited at the TMAG instead of being returned to the QVMAG.



Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office
William Ryan, prisoner carte removed from the criminal record sheet
Photographed by T. J. Nevin 1874
TAHO Ref: PH30_1_3262

RELATED POSTS main weblog

Calling the shots in colour 1864-1879



Understandable, it seems, that a commercially produced photograph in 1860s-1870s Tasmania would show some sort of colouring to enhance its decorative or sentimental appeal, especially if the narrative suggested by the photograph was the civilizing of Tasmanian Aborigines who were thought to be near extinction by the last few decades of the 19th century, and that the photographic studio renowned for bold artistic experimentations with colouring was Friths on Murray Street, Hobart. Less understandable is the hand-tinting of photographs of prisoners - or "Convict Portraits" as they became known - taken expressly for police use as gaol records, unless, of course, the photographic studio engaged for the purpose of providing those mugshots was operated by Thomas J. Nevin, on Elizabeth Street, Hobart.

While civil servant and police photographer Thomas Nevin was so well-known for his hand-tinted photographs that he was taunted with derogatory remarks about his "ornaments of colour" when questioned by the Mayor in a police committee meeting in December 1880, the hand-tinting of these two extant prints of Tasmanian Aborigines (below) of photographs attributed to Henry Frith taken in 1864 is unlikely to be the work of his colleague Letitia Davidson, described in the press as a "portrait painter" who departed Tasmania in 1867. The hand-tinting on these two examples was applied by later copyists at Hobart studios in the 1870s.

Friths' Studio 1864
The original session in which these two photographs were taken of the same four sitters, Tasmanian Aboriginal people identified by Julie Gough (see below, 2014) as William Lanne (male, seated), Mary Ann (standing), Trucanini (on viewer's right) and Pangernowidedic (on viewer's left) is dated 1864 and widely credited to the studio of Henry Albert Frith of 19 Murray Street, Hobart. The original photographs were mass produced over the next 40 years in various formats, as a large albumen silver photograph (NGA), as a sennotype, as a lantern slide, and as a plain mounted rectangular carte-de-visite. The originals were taken separately at Government House on the same day with minor changes in seating arrangements. Both of these reproductions were hand-tinted after printing at dates later than the 1864 original sitting, These two images were not processed as sennotypes of the 1860s for which both Henry Frith and Alfred Bock were renowned exponents, nor were they reproduced in the genre of photographic portraits painted over in oils which were much sought after in the 1890s. These reproductions were delicately tinted by studio colourists in the 1870s, using three colours: powder blue, yellow, and rose, typically applied to some feature of apparel and to some facial features. This palette and application to prints is typically found on Nevin's portraiture of family, clients, and convicts.



Henry Frith's advertisement:
Photographs of the Last of the Aborigines of Tasmania.
Copies of the Original Picture Photographed for the Government
Source: Advertising. (1865, October 7). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 1. Retrieved May 7, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8835349

This first reproduction was obtained by Sir George Grey (1812-1898), Governor of New Zealand, probably ca. 1882 through requests in letters (Auckland PL manuscripts) made to the former Tasmanian Surveyor-General James Erskine Calder for long-neglected Tasmaniana. Calder sourced books mainly from bookseller William Legrand and photographs from John Watt Beattie whose major source of early Tasmanian photographers' work for his own commercial reproduction from the 1890s onwards was the Royal Society's Museum. This one sent to Grey was not a late Beattie reproduction; it was an older reproduction, a hand-tinted copy from the 1870s already held by the Museum when it was sourced and sent to Grey in New Zealand, and which he shortly afterwards donated to the Auckland Art Gallery in 1893. The second hand-tinted cdv reproduction (below) is dated ca. 1875 by (Prof) Jane Lennon, antiques dealer.



Auckland Art Gallery
Title: The Last of the Native Race of Tasmania
Production Date:
Medium: black and white photograph, hand coloured
Size (hxw): 200 x 170 mm
Inscription:
THE LAST OF THE NATIVE RACE OF TASMANIA / ALL DEAD / THE ORIGINAL PICTURE TAKEN FOR THE TASMANIAN GOVERNMENT AND PLACED IN THE MUSEUM, HOBART, 1865. PHOTOGRAPHY BY H.A. FRITH. PUBLISHED IN THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON JOURNAL , 7TH JANUARY 1865 (PAGE 13). A LARGE COPY, TAKEN FROM THE ORIGINAL NEGATIVE, HAS BEEN PURCHASED BY SIR GEORGE GREY, TO BE PLACED IN THE ART GALLERY, AUCKLAND.
Credit Line: Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Sir George Grey,1893
Accession No: 1893/2 Other ID: 1893/2/A
http://www.aucklandartgallery.com/the-collection/browse-artists/723/henry-albert-frith

This second hand-tinted reproduction (below) was dated ca. 1875 by Jane Lennon when John Hawkins published it in 2008. Hawkins notes the seating re-arrangement but not the fact that the balustrades on the upper internal balcony on either side of the sitters are more visible, while the tops of the columns are not. This may be another photographer's negative, perhaps one taken by someone working with Frith, Letitia Davidson, for example, who may have been present on the occasion, which was the annual Ball held at Government House in honour of Queen Victoria's birthday (May 27th). The print is not as carefully reproduced as the one above, and the hand-tinting differs slightly as well. Any number of studios in the 1870s might have reproduced this less formally represented photograph.

The note to this print dates it as ca. 1875 (Plate 13: Hawkins 2008)





[Source]: John Hawkins, A Suggested History of Tasmanian Aboriginal Kangaroo Skin or Sinew, Human Bone, Shell, Feather, Apple Seed & Wombat Necklaces
Published Australiana, November 2008 Vol. 30 No. 4
Note to this photograph (Plate 13: Hawkins 2008)
"Courtesy Jane Lennon Antiques, Hobart,"
http://www.jbhawkinsantiques.com/uploads/articles/TasmanianAppleseedNecklacesAustraliana-PDF.pdf

Another photograph (below, and its negative) taken minutes apart from the tinted one above shows slight changes to the poses of the two sitters on the left, William Lanne and Pangernowidedic. Both face the front to look directly at the camera and photographer in this capture, whereas their heads in the tinted photograph (above) are orientated towards the viewer's right. Another change is the placement of William Lanne's right hand on his knee, which in the tinted photograph is in his pocket. Pangernowidedic's hand too is extended, whereas in the tinted photograph she held it clenched. The other two sitters, Mary Ann (standing) and Trucanini (on viewer's right) show barely any variation at all in their poses for each of the two captures.



Title: The last of the Tasmanian natives, 1864 / photographer Mr. Henry Albert Frith, Hobart Town
Item identifier: 93QVxNQ1
Permalink: https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/93QVxNQ1
State Library of NSW

The plate from which prints were obtained for this photograph was offered at auction recently by Gowans, Moonah, Tasmania, 19th June 2015. The first is the negative of the SLNSW copy, digitally flipped to show the composition as it appears on the positive print; the second is the negative of the SLNSW copy.



Above: this is the negative, digitally flipped to show the composition as it appears on the positive print of the SLNSW copy
Below: this is the negative of the SLNSW copy as it appeared when offered for sale.



The plate's provenance or previous ownership is unknown after its first use. The colonial government issued the commission first in 1864 to underscore the official narrative that the civilizing of Tasmanian Aborigines had been a successful endeavour, hence the dressing up of the sitters in elaborate European clothing and their presence at official events commemorating Queen Victoria's birthday. The plate may have arrived at Thomas Nevin's studio for reproduction in the early 1870s through requests for further prints by the colonial government as the belief that Tasmanian Aborigines were near extinction was becoming more widespread. Once Thomas Nevin ceased contractual work in 1888, his commercial and government stock was passed on to photographer and collector John Watt Beattie whose government commission from the 1890s was the promotion of Tasmania's heritage in intercolonial markets. The stock phrase to tout this and many more images of Tasmanian Aborigines in the name of tourism at the turn of the 20th century was "Last of Tasmanian Aborigines".



"Last of Tasmanian Aborigines".
Printing Plate 7 x 10cm
Gowans auction, Moonah, Tasmania, 19th June 2015

The 1866 Intercolonial Exhibition
Julie Gough on pages 45 and 46 of of her chapter titled "The First Photographs of Tasmanian Aboriginal People" in Calling the shots: Indigenous photographies edited by Jane Lydon (2014), suggests that Henry Frith's assistant, Letitia Davidson took this photograph of two women (below) at Oyster Cove, one of a collection held at the State library of NSW with attribution to Francis Russell Nixon, dated 1858 (reproduced by Beattie 1890, 1899).




Above: Julie Gough's attribution of this photograph to Letitia Davidson (2014:46). 

Several factors work against this re-attribution to Letitia Davidson. Firstly, although the photograph was reprinted by Beattie in the 1890s, only minor changes to the mount were made from the original which was likely to have belonged to the series published by Bishop Francis Russell Nixon in the 1854 copy of his book,  The Cruise of the Beacon, which gives an account of his trip around the islands of Bass Strait (digitised at http://stors.tas.gov.au/AUTAS001131821795.) None of the photographs in Nixon's 1854 edition nor identical images from that edition which Beattie reproduced in the 1890s were hand-tinted, yet Letitia Davidson's tender for the 1866 Intercolonial Exhibition specified her intentions to provide five "large colored pictures" -
 Miss Davidson (Frith and Co.), 5 large colored
pictures, £8 each, and to pay her own expenses
to Oyster Cove.



Source: INTERCOLONIAL EXHIBITION. (1866, June 6). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 3. Retrieved May 5, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8839726



These are Beattie's reproductions (above) from the 1890s (SLNSW) of the originals (below) which were published in Nixon's Cruise of the Beacon in 1854 (TAHO) and not in 1858, nor indeed for the 1866 Intercolonial Exhibition. None is hand-tinted. Furthermore, the way Nixon has contextualised these originals in the Cruise of the Beacon, which is by way of a subjoined  lengthy quotation from the Oyster Cove superintendent, Dr. Milligan, might suggest that Nixon was not even the original photographer, since he does not openly claim to be so anywhere in the text. Another photographer of the 1850s cohort may well have taken these originals for Dr Milligan prior to their publication in London by Nixon in 1854. The watercolour and pen illustrations are by Nixon, as the handwritten dedication to his wife A.M. states, and those illustrations are indexed with page numbers in the frontispiece, but the photographs have no page listings or indexed titles.





[Above]: The originals, published in the 1854 edition of Francis Russell Nixon's Cruise of the Beacon, London: printed by Richard Clay, Bread Street Hill. 1854.




Julie Gough has chosen this photograph of two Aboriginal women sitting together, held at the State Library of NSW, conventionally attributed to Bishop Nixon (dated 1858, reproduced by J. W. Beattie (1890s), as Mrs Davidson's work, which is catalogued as "2. ... Wapperty, Bessy Clarke" at PXD 571 - Digital Order Number: a1897002.  She presumes Mrs Davidson visited Oyster Cove to take the photograph:
"Mrs Davidson was the sister of Henry Albert Frith, and his photographic hand colourist. One of Frith's last Hobart commissions was his famous August 1864 sennotype of William Lanne, Mary Ann, Trucanini and Pangernowidedic at Government House, which was mass produced and also popular as a glass lantern slide. When Frith departed Hobart soon after, it was his sister,  Davidson, who applied to the Royal Society, along with with Samuel Clifford, Charles Woolley and Alfred Bock, to be commissioned to make photographs of the Tasmanian Aborigines (by which was meant those living at Oyster Cove) for the 1866 Intercolonial Exhibition in Melbourne. Charles Woolley was awarded the commission, given his influential connections [footnote 74]. The other applicants planned to visit Oyster Cove to take their photographs, whereas Woolley's resultant early examples of anthropological photography were indoor studio works [footnote75]. Davidson, it is presumed, not to be deterred, did visit Oyster Cove and made photographs that were exhibited along with Woolley's in Melbourne [footnote 76]."
Source: Calling the Shots at Google books



The basis for Julie Gough's attribution of this photograph of two Aboriginal women to Mrs Davidson, Murray Street, Hobart is this entry on the 1866 Intercolonial Exhibition Catalogue (above, image 84, State Library of Victoria which lists Mrs Davidson's exhibit as:
714~Davidson, Mrs., Murray-st., Hobart Town.—Photographs of two Aboriginal women
Yet this entry in the 1866 Exhibition catalogue is somewhat ambiguous: it implies that Mrs Davidson exhibited not one but several photographs of two women, and does not state whether the two women were photographed as a couple in a single portrait, or whether there were several versions of this couple photographed together, or whether these two women were each photographed individually. More importantly, it does not state whether the photographs were hand-coloured, as was her intention when she submitted her tender, published in The Mercury on June 6th, 1866. Did she exhibit the five photographs she had planned? Apart from these vagaries, there is the question too about Letitia Davidson's identity. Twice in the press she was referred to as "Miss Davidson", as in the notice above of June 6th 1866, and again in April 1867 when she advertised the sale of photographica and furniture at the shop, 19 Murray St. prior to departure from Tasmania in May 1867. "Davidson" may have been her maiden name. Those who referred to her as "Mrs Davidson" may have extended her a simple courtesy shown to unmarried older women. On the other hand, some photo historians assumed she was the sister of the brothers Frederick and Henry Firth, repeated here by Julie Gough. If so, who and where was Mr Davidson?  Was he James William Davidson who married a Letitia Frith at Edinburgh on 11th February 1845? Was he the surveyor working in Hobart in the 1860s?

Letitia Davidson's dagueurreotypes have yet to be identified, as well.

Mrs Davidson was a "portrait painter" at Murray St Hobart by 1861, according to the newspaper report of a theft from her shop of a daquerreotype by a woman called Mary Hughes (Mercury, 9 April 1861). Julie Gough has designated Mrs Davidson's role that of  a "colourist"  and not a "portrait painter" . The latter occupation involved a good deal more than the hand-tinting of facial features and items of clothing on prints in the years when the sennotype was a patented and complex format much sought out by the clients at Mrs Davidson's studio, 1864-65, established with the Frith brothers. However, the portrait of two Aboriginal women chosen for re-attribution to Mrs Davidson is not hand-coloured, so the occupational term "colourist" applied to this appellate case contradicts or undermines an otherwise sincere attempt at re-attribution in our era when so few photographs taken by women in the mid 19th century have survived or been identified as such.

So, what did the Jurors of the 1866 Intercolonial Exhibition of Australasia, Melbourne think of photographs "touched" with colour, and who won medals? They ranked tinted and coloured photographs as second class. It might well have been the case that Letitia Davidson's photographs of two Aboriginal women were tinted or colored as she had stated in her tender but are not known to exist or identified at this point in time, and she forfeited consideration as a result. The usual Tasmanian photographers of the mid 1860s won medals: Morton Allport, William Cawston, Henry Hall Bailey [sic], Samuel Clifford, Stephen Spurling, and Charles A. Woolley for his Aboriginal portraits.

p.350
"The Jurors regret that so large a proportion of the exhibits are 'touched', the merit being divided between the photographer and the artist. Admitting that many of the tinted and coloured photographs are entitled to much commendation, the Jurors are of the opinion that the purely untouched specimens should stand first in the order of desert."





The catalogue on pps 350-351.

Researchers Davies & Stanbury listed Mrs Davidson as a photographer in Hobart 1862-1867 and Melbourne 1869-1870. The general consensus in the 1990s from photohistorians was that none of Mrs Davidson's works are extant. Clearly, more research is needed, especially as Mrs Davidson was publicly acknowledged in 1861 as a portrait painter whose daguerreotypes were available at her shop in Murray Street. Two ambrotypes by Letitia Davidson were purchased by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in 2013-2014, listed in the TMAG Annual Report as -
Two framed half plate hand coloured ambrotypes of Mr and Mrs S.H Greuber by Letita Davidson, Frith & Co –Photographers Hobart 1862-7 were purchased.
These are society portraits of the landed gentry, what might be expected from the Friths' Studio. They are wholly dissimilar to the Aboriginal portrait above which Julie Gough has chosen for re-attribution from Bishop Nixon to Letitia Davidson. The colouring on these two examples of portraits of Mr and Mrs Greuber is minimal, not exactly congruent with Letitia Davidson's reputation as a "portrait painter" but certainly consistent with the technique of hand-colouring evident in the two group portraits taken by Frith of Tasmanian Aborigines (above) at Government House in 1864.



Ambrotype collodian [sic] ½ plate negative hand coloured
Letitia Davidson-Frith & Co [photographer]
Studio portrait of Mrs Steven Henry Grueber 1858-1862s
TMAG Ref: Q2014.13



Ambrotype collodian [sic] ½ plate negative hand coloured
Letitia Davidson-Frith & Co [photographer]
Studio portrait of Mr Steven Henry Grueber 1858-1867
TMAG Ref: Q2014.12

This third portrait (below), an ambrotype, is of Jane Kennerley nee Rouse, wife of Hobart Mayor Alfred Kennerley. Although unattributed where it is displayed at the Sydney Museums Exhibition page titled THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY, it was most likely taken by Letitia Davidson at the Frith & Co studios in Murray St. Hobart ca. 1865; the frame for this portrait is very similar to the two Davidson portraits recently acquired by the TMAG.



These notes are from the Sydney Living Museums Threads of Connection:

Mrs Jane Kennerley 1809-1877

Jane Kennerley, nee Rouse, was the second daughter of Richard Rouse (1774-1852), early Hawkesbury settler and colonial government employee, and his wife Elizabeth Adams (1772-1849). Her earliest years were spent at Parramatta where her father was an auctioneer and Superintendent of Government Works but she grew up at Rouse Hill, a house her father began building in 1813. This house became the centre of the Rouse family estates. In February 1834 Jane married Alfred Kennerley, a recently-arrived English settler who had bought a property called ‘The Retreat Farm’ at Bringelly, near Camden. Kennerley owned The Retreat Farm (later called Kelvin) for more than twenty years but he and Jane spent some of that time in England and when they returned to Australia in 1857 they settled in Hobart, Tasmania. Kennerley became a magistrate, was elected to the city council and served as Mayor of Hobart. He was elected to the Tasmanian Legislative Council in 1865 and served as Premier from 1873 to 1876. Jane maintained frequent contact with her family at Rouse Hill and members of the extended Rouse family sometimes holidayed in Hobart. Jane Kennerley died in Hobart in May 1877.

R90/81
Rouse Hill House & Farm
Photograph: Jenni Carter, 2007

Letitia Davidson, the daguerreotype and Mary Hughes
Prosecutrix Letitia Davidson, portrait painter, Murray St. Hobart, had not even noticed a daguerreotype was missing from the counter in the shop and studio she operated with brothers Frederick and Henry Frith until it was brought back to her for identification by Detective Macguire. Despite the return of the daguerreotype, hardly missed in any event, and despite knowing that the offender Mary Hughes was an elderly  beggar from an earlier encounter at her house, Mrs Davidson somewhat heartlessly prosecuted the case, resulting in a three month sentence with hard labour for Mary Hughes.


Mary Hughes remanded on a charge of stealing a daguerreotype portrait, the property of Letitia Davidson.
The Mercury 9 April 1861



Mary Hughes had tried pawning the daguerreotype but the pawnbroker Mrs S. W. Roberts retained it and notified police, resulting in three months' imprisonment with hard labor for this theft from Mrs Davidson (The Mercury 10 April 1861). Mary Hughes was repeatedly imprisoned for begging, the last recorded sentence being 1868.



Mary Hughes, transported on the convict ship Westmoreland, tried in the Supreme Court Hobart on 31st January 1868, born in England, aged 70 yrs old, height 4'10". grey hair, Free in Servitude, was discharged from the Hobart Gaol on 29th April 1868, having served a three month sentence for begging.

Thomas Nevin's coloured convict portraits
Vignetted portraits of Tasmanian convicts from the 1870s-1880s are relatively rare, and hand-tinted portraits even more remarkable, given the photographs were taken for daily use by police in the course of surveillance, detection and arrest.



Prisoners John Britton or Brittain (No. 417) and David Clark (No. 421)
Absconders detained as "paupers" at the Invalid Depots, Hobart, Tasmania 
Hand-tinted photographs by Thomas J. Nevin 1874-1879.
Photos recto and verso copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2014-2015
Taken at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 10 November 2014

CAUTION: These photographs are all WATERMARKED



Verso: Prisoners John Britton or Brittain (No. 417) and David Clark (No. 421)
Absconders detained as "paupers" at the Invalid Depots, Hobart, Tasmania 
Hand-tinted photographs by Thomas J. Nevin 1874-1879.
Photos recto and verso copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2014-2015
Taken at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 10 November 2014

These two carte-de-visite prisoner identification photogaphs (portraits or mugshots) were taken and printed by commercial photographer Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1874 for the Municipal Police Office registry, Hobart Town Hall, while he was still operating from his studio, the City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart. Nevin and his assistants took some time over these two prisoner photographs, printing them as vignettes (cloudy background) and hand-tinting the prison-issue, check-patterned scarf in light blue to better identify the sitter as a prisoner. At least five more of these hand-tinted prisoner photographs by Nevin are held in public institutions (see more below from the NLA, TMAG, and SLNSW).

Someone removed these two originals from the prisoner's criminal record sheet at an unknown date. The versos show a strong fabric weave, suggesting the photographs were originally pasted to parchment, as some were. For example, Nevin's photograph of prisoner Allan Williamson on display at the Penitentiary Chapel Historic Site, was attached to Williamson's original parchment rap sheet. Hundreds of these 1870s mugshots in national collections were removed in similar manner and for at least three reasons: an attempt to destroy any association with convict ancestry by the living, especially photographic records; salvage for commercial exploitation to encourage tourism by selling or displaying single items in private and public museums (1890s and 1930s ); or simply because of deterioration in poor storage conditions (1950s, Hobart Gaol.)

Parchment rots and stinks when damp and poorly stored. The Sheriff's Office at the Hobart Gaol handed over bundles of rotting prison records to the Archives Office of Tasmania in 1955, some from the Benevolent society. Estrays which had been salvaged by government photographer John Beattie from the Hobart Gaol photographer's room above the laundry before it was demolished in 1915, were displayed in his "Port Arthur" convictaria museum in Hobart, and bequeathed to the Launceston City and QVMAG on his death in 1930. Others were privately collected by David Scott Mitchell at the State Library of NSW (1907), and Dr Neil Gunson, National Library, Canberra (1964). or auctioned off, at least from the late 1890s to the 1960s. A selection of the extant 300 or so at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston were exhibited as Thomas J. Nevin's prison photography in 1977. A hundred or more prisoner photographs from Beattie's collection were thereafter dispersed piecemeal to national and state libraries and museums.

A significant number of Nevin's duplicates of his originals, and there were at least four made from every negative, were stand-alone cartes-de-visite, often the result of producing more from the same negative when the offender committed or was suspected of further crimes. Despite their long journey from Nevin's hand in the 1870s to the present day, these two prisoner photographs representing John Britton and David Clark have retained a certain delicacy and freshness which must have stirred an aesthetic appreciation in the depositor at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. But are they objets-d'art or are they vernacular records? Thomas J. Nevin was mocked for his photographic "ornaments of colour" by the representative defending two police constables at the Mayor's Court meeting of the Police Committee. That meeting effected his removal from full-time civil service with the Hobart City Corporation on a trumped-up charge on December 3rd, 1880. His detractors had these two and the other tinted prisoner mugshots in mind: ornaments such as these were judged all too inappropriate for representing the likeness of common criminals.

Prisoner John Britton or Brittain
This vignetted carte-de-visite prisoner identification photograph of a "pauper" was taken of John Britton, as he was known to the police in 1879, but he was transported to VDL (Tasmania) in 1842 as John Brittain on board the Candahar. He was 26 yrs old when he arrived in VDL 1842, born ca.1816 and by 1874 when this photograph was taken, he was ca. 58 yrs old.



Prisoner John Britton, transported per the Candahar (1842)
Detained at the Brickfields Depot for Paupers for 4 yrs (1874-1879)
Prisoner number 26 (1874) and number 417 (1879), Absconded in government clothing
Discharged from the Brickfields Depot for Paupers 25 November 1879

Photos recto and verso copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2014-2015
Taken at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 10 November 2014

POLICE GAZETTE RECORDS





TRANSPORTATION RECORDS
Archives Office Tasmania
Name: Brittain, John
Record Type: Convicts
Arrival date: 21 Jul 1842
Departure date: 2 Apr 1842
Departure port: Spithead
Ship: Candahar
Voyage number: 194
Index number: 7367
Document ID:
NAME_INDEXES:1375518
Conduct Record CON33/1/23
Description List CON18/1/31 Page 163
Indent CON14/1/14
Muster RollCON 28/1/1

Prisoner David Clark



Absconder from Brickfields
Photos recto and verso copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2014-2015
Taken at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 10 November 2014

The Returns of Paupers in the Police Gazettes assign a number to the Brickfields Depot and to the Cascades Depot inmates, and some but not others to the inmates at the Invalid Depot, New Town which was close by to Nevin's photographic studio established by 1864 at New Town and maintained until 1888 concurrently with his City studio. This inmate was not to be found in the Police Gazette records with the number assigned by Authority (No. 421) written on the back of his photograph, so he may have been photographed by Nevin at the New Town depot. The similarities between the two photographs, however, suggest a common place of capture and the same photographer and colourist, so Britain's mugshot taken at Brickfields (North Hobart depot) seems to be the common place for both photographic captures.

The second problem - apart from not locating his name in the Police Gazettes with his number 421 - nor identifying him from Returns of convictions and discharges recorded in the police gazettes 1866-1885, is the possibility that he was transported on the ship David Clarke, rather than being a man called David Clark, although there are many convicts called David Clark(e) who might fit his description.



Absconders from Invalid Depot, Cascades 1879



More examples by Thomas J. Nevin
These are more examples of hand-tinted photographs of Tasmanian prisoners 1870s-1880s by T. J. Nevin held at the National Library of Australia and the State Library of NSW:



Detail of the tinted photograph (below on right) of prisoner Walter Johnstone aka Henry Bramall
NLA Catalogue  nla.pic-vn4270027.
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2015 ARR. Watermarked.



Johnstone aka Bramall or Taylor absconded, reported February 6, 1874
Source: Tasmania Reports on Crime for Police Information





Walter Johnstone aka Henry Bramall aka Taylor
NLA Collection  nla.pic-vn4270027
Vignette on left, not tinted but mounted, and hand-tinted mounted cdv 
Original prisoner mugshots by T. J. Nevin 1874
Photos recto and verso taken at the National Library of Australia, 7th Feb 2015
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2015 ARR. Watermarked.



William Campbell, hanged as Job Smith 1875 
NLA Collection nla.pic-vn4270353
Hand-tinted vignetted and mounted prisoner portrait by T.J. Nevin 1874
Photos taken at the National Library of Australia, 7th Feb 2015
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2015 ARR. Watermarked.



The Death Warrant for James Sutherland, 23rd May 1883
Hand-tinted mounted cdv by Thomas J. Nevin 1880s
Mitchell Library SLNSW
Tasmania. Supreme Court - Death warrants and related papers, 1818-1884
Mitchell Bequest, 1907
Call Number C 202 - C 203
Taken at the State Library NSW
Photo copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2009 ARR

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